He’s the second quarterback with 11 touchdowns and no interceptions in a postseason, joining Hall of Famer Joe Montana of the 1989 49ers.

“Joe is my all-time favorite quarterback,” Flacco said. “To be put next to him is pretty cool.”

Cooler is Flacco’s decision before the season to put off contract talks. He is now a free agent and probably will command $20 million a year.

From Baltimore, of course.

“I’m a Raven for life. That’s the way I see it,” he said.

And that’s how Baltimore fans will see it, too, after Flacco beat Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Colin Kaepernick in the playoffs – with the Ravens underdogs in the last three games.

“I’m a Joe Flacco fan. I’ve been a Joe Flacco fan,” Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. “To do what he did today, that’s what we always see.”

The Ravens jumped to a 28-6 lead and survived a blackout and sudden 49ers comeback when the lights returned. Flacco made big throws to Anquan Boldin down the stretch to get the two field goals that Baltimore would need for the narrow win.

Though Lewis said he has always been in Flacco’s corner, the quarterback admitted to thinking the worst when the 49ers had three shots from the 5-yard line in the final two minutes.

“I was sitting there thinking, ‘There’s no way. There’s no way we stop them here,’ ” Flacco said. “But we did. … This game is crazy. It always comes down to two-minute drives.”

Flacco said it was kind of fitting that the Ravens won that way.

“I tell you what: We don’t make it easy,” Flacco said. “But that’s the way the city of Baltimore is. That’s the way we are.”

The Ravens lost four of their final five regular-season games to stumble into the playoffs, and Flacco finished 12th in the 32-team NFL in passer rating at 87.7.

He became a different quarterback in the playoffs, the best quarterback in the league for the past month.

Flacco set an NFL record for quarterbacks by leading his team to playoff wins in each of his first five seasons. He is 9-4 in the postseason.

“He’s taken a lot of criticism over his career, for whatever reason,” tight end Dennis Pitta said. “But we’ve always believed in him. We’ve known the kind of player that he is. He’s showed up on the biggest stage and performed.”

There were other worthy candidates for the MVP award, from Jacoby Jones (two touchdowns) to Boldin, who made a big catch every time the Ravens needed one.

“And don’t forget the defense,” Flacco said. “Everybody on our team could make a case for it, but they have to give it to one guy. I’m not going to complain about it.”

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Vic Tafur started covering the Raiders in 2010. He has written a fantasy football, college football and college basketball column for the Chronicle, and covered the San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors earlier in his career. Follow him on Twitter.